Friday, January 15, 2010

what's up the pike: have you noticed the sun sets later now

Sunset, East-West at Blair Mill

- John Landis of Crisfield Seafood Restaurant on Georgia Avenue says construction of an adjacent apartment building didn't hurt their business. Nearby Mayorga Coffee Roasters, who blamed the recently-completed Veridian Apartments for taking away parking and killing their business, which closed last month. "Businesses can and do survive and do well in south Silver Spring," writes Landis, noting that the Veridian's developers helped Crisfield find parking for their customers during while the building was finished.

- A Burtonsville woman says she's so afraid of the alleged drug dealers in the parking lot of the Safeway at Briggs Chaney Plaza that she now buys groceries in Howard County. She knows she passes the Burtonsville Giant on her way to HoCo, right? (And we wonder why businesses there are suffering.)

- The Post's John Kelly interviews local DJ Barry Richards, who as legend has it brought Led Zeppelin to a youth center in Wheaton in 1969. Throughout the 1960's and 70's, Richards hosted a series of rock TV shows on Channel 20 with live appearances by music acts both big and small.

- NewsChannel 8 covers First Baptist Church's plans to build apartments and retail on their property at Fenton Avenue Street and Wayne Avenue to pay for a new sanctuary. "The neighborhood would just be overwhelmed" by the proposed building, complains one local resident. Five stories tall, the new apartment complex would of course be the tallest thing ever built in Downtown Silver Spring.

- Within three months of opening, the Homewood Suites hotel on Colesville Road had to replace dozens of blankets that disappeared from guestroom beds, says USA Today in a story about hotel theft. The hotel sells the "ultra-soft, butter yellow" blankets for $110 each, but apparently guests weren't interested in opening up their pockets.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

RE: the proposed redevelopment of the church site at Fenton & Wayne.

I was at the neighborhood meeting last night where the developer and architect presented the concept plans. While many supported the project, not surprisingly, there were some people who simply do not like change and no matter how well illustrated or explained, they could not visualize the development. This building is anything but overwhelming--the architects very sentisitively designed it so it wouldn't dominate Fenton, Wayne & Bonifant Streets or the adjacent homes. My favorite quote in the article is from the nearby resident who doesn't want her neighbor's homes to be in the shadow of the building. The building lies to the northwest of the so-called affected houses. Since we live in the northern hemisphere, the only time the shadow would ever cross the property line is during the summer in the very late afternoon. 95% of the rest of the year, there would be no shadow. PS...I do not work for the developer or the architect, but I do know how to read plans.

Unknown said...

OOPs sorry, the building is just slightly to the southwest. Either way, the shadow will be infrequent, if at all becaue of the location. Also, the building is more than 100' from the propertly line.